Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Top 25 Most Influential Directors


Okay, so I filled out this survey on which directors I thought were the most influential. I enjoyed making the list, and so I thought I'd post it on my blog.

Top 25 Most Influential Directors (In My Opinion)

1. Fritz Lang, natch. M has had such a pervasive influence on the genre of noir that it can almost be counted the first noir film, though it is still firmly rooted in German Expressionism. Metropolis has had even more profound an effect, fundamentally defining science-fiction films for decades after its creation. His style is the definition of directorial artistry.

2. John Ford. From his classics to his forgettables, he remains the greatest influence on many directors even today. Stagecoach is a film that not only influenced every western that came after it, it was so influential that Orson Welles said he watched it countless times in preparation for Citizen Kane. Such is the power of John Ford.

3. Jean-Luc Godard. He invented the concept of independent film, from casting to filming to production. He invented anachronistic storytelling that has made Quentin Tarantino famous. He invented the long take, the jump cut, talking at the camera, that the sound could differ greatly from the image, and other techniques. He is a fabulous filmmaker who is still alive today, making fabulous films.

4. Alfred Hitchcock. The first true auteur, he made every suspense a thrill, every scare a scream, and terrified/mystified audiences for so many years and so many movies that he has literally seeped into legend as one of the greatest directors who ever lived. The modern suspense/thriller movie and practically every horror movie owes this man their existence.

5. D. W. Griffith. Okay, so this one should probably be higher up, and I mostly lowered him because he can be a bit formulaic and his films tend to blur together after a while. However, he pioneered so much of the entire idea of film that one cannot make a list of influential directors without mentioning him. He practically invented close-ups. No, really.

6. Stanley Kubrick. Whoops, turns out the best director ever has had some influence on film, who'd have thought. While he did not invent the "art" film, he certainly made the biggest ones, redefining what a truly artistic director could do. His films further execute massive influence on their genres (2001 on Sci-Fi, The Shining on thrillers, etc.), and he has carved out a distinguished place in history.

7. Federico Fellini. I... dislike Fellini, think he's over-rated. His style, however, has been copied endlessly to the point where a big and exaggerated movie is considered en vogue. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it more or less has led directly to the world of (good) surreal filmmaking. And even the best and most original of these films owe something of a tribute to Fellini.

8. Steven Spielberg. Invented the blockbuster. THANK YOU!!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU STEVEN!!!!!!!

9. Orson Welles. I hesitate to put him this high up, though others would have put him higher. While Citizen Kane may be the greatest film of all time, and the most examined of all time, it is still one film. Yes, the deep focus it turned on life and a great, troubled man's story is monumental, and a deserving spot for #9. But no further. 

10. Charlie Chaplin. He discovered that in order to reach the largest audience, he had to make his movies fun and funny. Given that he did this mostly during the Silent Age of Hollywood, this belies his talent. His influence is still found in every G-rated film that still manages to comment on society as a whole, and in every romantic comedy that truly explores what it means to be an adult in today's culture.

11. Martin Scorsese. While his films are about fantastically abstract ideas such as aggression, passion, and insanity, the real influence is from his crime films. I could tell you that it is his intensity for filmmaking that makes him noteworthy, or his artistic style that has influenced other directors. But his movies' crime, grit, and violence are what he's truly given cinema. And it is beautiful.

12. Akira Kurosawa. George Lucas, Sergio Leone, John Sturges. One need look no further than these directors to truly feel the influence Akira Kurosawa has had on the world of film. Much like Fritz Lang's M, his Yojimbo basically defines Spaghetti Westerns without being one. His storytelling style is such that, no matter the facet of Japan he filmed, he could tell its story universally to every culture.

13. Ingmar Bergman. Emotion made real on film. He defined what lighting effects were truly about, using such dynamic lighting techniques that he displayed clearly even the most hidden of film's secrets. His stories are fabulously influential (chess with Death especially comes to mind), and his emotions palpable in others films even after many years.

14. Walt Disney. If you don't live under a rock, I shouldn't have to explain this one. While not strictly a director, he has had more influence on animation than any other person, ever. Bar none. He did not invent the animated feature, but he made it viable. He may not have invented merchandising (Charlie Chaplin again), but he made it dynamic. He did, however, invent our childhoods. All of ours.

15. John Huston. The world of noir loves John Huston, and he loves it back. The Maltese Falcon was the turning point for noir, but he kept it going with more and more films that pushed more and more the boundaries of their genre. Action, comedy, adventure, character studies, on and on he went until he simply had no more life to give us. There is no genre today that does not owe him a tip of the hat.

16. Francis Ford Coppola. If Martin Scorsese is the father of crime film, this man is the godfather (pun intended). What made GoodFellas possible? The Godfather. What made Oliver Stone's Platoon possible? Apocalypse Now. Even today, his directorial talent is felt in every movie where a man contemplates what he has become, where a man destroys with glee and sadism, where the battlefield is revered.

17. Howard Hawks. Turns out that the highly influential for their genre films Bringing Up Baby (screwball comedy's daddy), The Big Sleep (a noir titan), Sergeant York (a highly pervasive war film), and Scarface (seriously, gangster film incarnate) all have the same director, and it's this guy. That about sums it up.

18. Jean Renoir. A man who understood before anyone else did what film was truly capable of. He was so far ahead of his time that his films still hold up in a big way. This is the one who discovered that lighting, focus, and camera angle were each parts that could interact and intersect with one another to illustrate new film techniques.

19. Sergei Eisenstein. I don't particularly like this one, either. He does deserve a place on here, because he invented the film montage. I guess his style is also fairly influential, and his movies have become revered classics for the world of film. The Battleship Potemkin is still today very influential in both terms of shots and ambiance. And he theorized what eventually became trailers.

20. David Lean. While Francis Ford Coppola was writing Patton, I cannot imagine that David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia was far from his mind. In the end, Lean's effect on the film is so profound that they resonate almost perfectly. Dozens of directors name him to be a direct influence on their art, among them Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, and even Mel Brooks.

21. F. W. Murnau. He directed so much of German Expressionist that at this point it is easier to list the horror films he didn't influence than the ones he did. Also, he was one of the first directors to use original scores for his film's music. Nosferatu is without a doubt the most influential vampire film of all time, and Sunrise is still considered one of the best movies ever.

22. Yaujiro Ozu. A bit of an oddity, this man could not make a normal movie to save his life. All of his movies were filmed at floor level, with sudden cuts, or no cuts, or no movement at all. His films are strange. However, many artistic filmmakers are drawn to this unique style, and see the value in its storytelling potential. His movies have influenced many, especially Tokyo Story.

23. Elia Kazan. Frankly, even I am shocked it took me this long to mention him. He is credited with the creation of Method Acting. He is further credited as the greatest actor's director who has ever lived. His films showed the world what acting really was, showed us the power and warmth and terror in every scene. His style of directing actors is the most influential style, ever. And he's the reason Martin Scorsese makes films.

24. Woodey Allen. The most neurotic success story of all time. How he crept onto this list I will, perhaps, never know, but I do know that his style has been imitated endlessly. His confessional, unrelenting comedy is somehow both incredibly intelligent and delivered as though he were a Marx brother. It is something he has perfected that other people (Coen Bros) have built their careers on.

25. Andrei Tarkovsky. It kills me that he is lower than Eisenstein, but I do believe he is less influential. His films were undeniably cooler and better than Eisenstein's (in my opinion, anyway), because Tarkovsky had more of an affect on the way we viewed film than anything else. Solaris' long held shots are perfect examples of this, and quivers of it can be felt in Kubrick's 2001. The dreamlike effect was an influence unto itself.

Deserving of mention is Peter Yates, for directing the chase scene in Bullitt that basically has come to define chase scenes, but had an otherwise mixed career, and was overall not very influential. Also, Judd Apatow, who has come to define modern comedy that isn't already defined by the Coen Brothers. Speaking of which, the Coen Brothers and Terry Gilliam for defining Black Comedy. Ridley Scott for Blade Runner and Gladiator, huge influences on the sci-fi and historical epic genres in their modern state. James Cameron for the new definition of "Box-Office Hit", as well as setting a new watermark for fantastic imagery with Avatar. Also, George A. Romero for the zombies, but not much else in the way of actual filmmaking. Not that his films are bad (though some of them are), he just hasn't had that much of an impact on film as a whole. None of these directors have, which is why I omitted them.

Various directors not included but still very influential that if I do not mention someone will start foaming at the mouth include:
Victor Fleming
Michael Curtiz
Frank Capra
Billy Wilder (by far the hardest cut I had to make)
Sergio Leone (though he is mentioned in the article twice)
Mel Brooks
Brian de Palma
...Tim Burton (sigh)
Clint Eastwood
Hayao Miyazaki
Quentin Tarantino, but only in the 90's

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